Spring 2020 Freedom Ranger project

13 of the 15 chickens bagged up and ready for the freezer

On June 19th, we started the process of graduting the meaties to Freezer Camp. Since there were only 15 we weren't expecting this to last a terribly long time. Especially since we have a neighbor/friend who has joined us for each of our butchering days.

This year's batch went from 30 to 15 due to a brooder fire. Then we figured out that we didn't count correctly and there was one more. However one of the meaties didn't grow nearly as much and actually appeared to be about half the size of all the other monsters. She may weigh two pounds where as the others all dressed out at anywhere from three to almost five pounds. 

As I posted a couple of weeks ago we got ourselves a Yardbird Chicken Plucker - this is a game changer!

This plucker easily accommodates two chickens

Short story - we were not able to reserve the Poultry Processing kit for this particular weekend. Which is kinda funny, because the original date was the previous week and there would be NO ONE to help check the kit out. I think since then COVID might have changed things anyway. 

In addition to the plucker we would need a vessel large enough to dunk a couple of chickens into. Using the big pot that came with the turkey fryer set up would work, but we wouldn't be able to dunk two at once. I know, minor detail - Whatever. To solve that problem I did some research and then found this behemoth:

This stockpot is 80 quarts! Everything else looks miniature

Thank you very much Amazon. This thing worked great AND the water was up to temperature in about an hour and twenty minutes. This is actually a pot for crab boils and comes with a basket that you put all the crab and other goodies into and lower into the pot. We used that for cooking the entrails (which we let the pigs have later). 

There was only one Restraining Cone, so Tom picked up one more at Wilco a couple of days before processing day.

We set up the saw horses and a piece of plywood covered with thick plastic for our evisceration station. 

Adding the plucker and the giant pot to our processing kit gives us so much flexibility. We don't have to calculate the weeks from picking up the chicks to processing day - which I mess up anyway. In the future we can just plan to pick the chicks up and then go from there. We can do two batches of chickens a year if we want and invite others to join us in the harvest. The minimum order at Jenks is 25 so there would be plenty of chickens to go around if we even had a couple of extra people coming to learn and get their hands dirty. 

There will be a second batch this year and that batch will begin on July 7th. This next batch of birds will be what is called the FryPan special. These are a heavy breed cockerel and will take 16-18 weeks to get to 6 or 7 pounds. I would be happy with a 5 pound chicken as I am having a hard time finding bags big enough for a five pound bird. We'll see how this goes. It will be a fun next project!

This little girl was just too little and it made more sense to keep her as a layer just like Cleo from the first batch a couple of years ago. I wanted to give her a name that kind of went along with her breed with is Freedom Ranger - so I said Liberty! Which was okay, but Libby is much better. After spending most of the day by herself yesterday she got introduced to the main flock earlier today. No one thought twice about her presence, she just blends right in.

Farm Life is the Best Life when you add meat to the freezer!

Gobble Gobble

Today we trekked to Cascade Meadows Farm outside of Sandy, OR to pick up six White Holland Poults. As I mentioned before we had thought about doing the turkey thing like last year, but it didn't happen. Then we thought we might get started earlier this year, but then the coronavirus changed that plan. Until last weekend I was thinking that maybe we wouldn't do turkeys this year and we would wait another year to get them started.

Once we arrived we were greeted by Jason, he is so knowledgeable and eager to help beginners in just about anything that they have to offer at their farm. Which is nice because I don't feel so bad about sending the odd text here and there if something comes up. Kirk was out working with their Dexter herd so he was unavailable for the most part. Kirk is not nearly as personable as Jason, but friendly none the less.

Before getting to the matter of the turkeys we talked about projects and stuff then the conversation circled back around to turkeys and he told us all sorts of stuff about these White Holland poults. What we have learned so far about this breed:

1. They are quite docile - well the Cascade flock is docile and friendly. We were told that they might even follow us into the house if given the chance. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. 
2. They are a slow grower. Which is to be expected as it seems that heritage breeds are slow to mature. So a fresh turkey at Thanksgiving this year is a no go. 
3. Turkeys can be quite sensitive in that new things will kind of freak them out. So you know that we'll be in there and getting them used to us and to different things until we get them outside. 
4. They are not as mean to other chicks in the same pen. This is perfect since we'll be picking up our next batch of meat chickens in about three weeks. So once the meaties are big enough to go outside they'll join the turkeys. The turkeys will probably be about a month and half old by the time the meaties are ready. 

So far they are sounding really good! 

During our visit Jason showed us the set-up that they had for their young turkeys. There were several within this turkey shelter (tractor) and it was quite fun seeing the little turkeys hopping around.

Check out this little show off...

He's already showing off to the girl who is quite unimpressed

We talked about Rex, Fiona and the kids for a little while which was nice. It was also nice to know that we are doing a pretty good job with our piggies and what to be watching for...

ANYWAY - 

While I knew that I didn't want anymore four legged creatures besides what we have, I wasn't so sure if we would be adding feathered creatures or not. It wasn't looking very positive until a few days ago. 

Now that I have seen them in action. Then next step will be to process a couple and see how that goes. I can't imagine that it would be much different than a chicken, but you never know. If they are as good as Jason has then I have high hopes that will be raising more to put into the freezer and onto our table maybe even onto the tables of some friends. 

Since we are starting with 6 poults I'm optimistic that at least one of them will be a male and we won't have to go back to Cascade Meadows to get a tom from them. It is a nice trip out there though, so it wouldn't be the end of the world. 

This might be the last thing that we add to the farm...maybe.

Farm Life is the Best Life!

Vacation

It may seem like I only just went back to work in the office full-time instead of working at home. This is true, but I really needed a break. Time to not think about anything work related.

My initial plan was to work at getting my garden planted. So far it has rained every day since Thursday. Actually, that's not true, there was a day that wasn't rainy. Oh wait, Friday. Yep, Friday morning I was able to get some plants into the garden - Romanesco and Lemon Balm. Saturday was a dreary day - good for hanging out inside and doing almost nothing. I think I may have watched several episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Yesterday Tom helped me with getting the remainder of the Salvaterra tomatoes into one of the garden boxes. We have an unintended experiment happening this year with the Salvaterra plants. There are 10 plants in the crop garden, 6 in the garden box and there is one left which will go into the hoop house. We'll see what works best for these plants.

Romanesco & Lemon Balm

Salvaterra Tomatoes in a Garden Box

Friday was a Floating Holiday for me so today is officially vacation day #1. Like I mentioned earlier, my plan was to work in the garden. WAS. It has rained off and on all through last evening and this morning so I decided that today I will make ice cream! I'm not a huge fan of ice cream, but Tom is so I thought I would get the Pampered Chef ice cream maker out and get it going again. My fear was that after a couple of years that it wouldn't do anything, it did turn on. However my mixture is still too warm to pour in so here I am on blogger instead. I could nap, but this seemed a bit more productive. 

Since I picked up another bag of russet potatoes at the food pantry at our church I may make another batch of gnocchi. The first ever batch that I made was on Saturday and it turned out pretty well. The recipe which I found on the Epicurious website was pretty easy and easily could feed us over two meals. SO GOOD! Try it you'll like it!

Not a bad first effort

What else do we have planned? Check it out:

1. Tuesday - Trek to Cascade Meadows Farm and pick up some White Holland Turkey poults. We had talked about growing our own Thanksgiving turkey this year. The craziness with COVID19 kinda pushed that idea to the back and we didn't think of it again until a couple of days ago. I don't know that happened, but somehow we got on the subject of growing turkeys. When Tom said he still wanted to do that this year I knew that I better get in contact with Farmer Jason and ask him about getting some poults. We will be picking up six poults tomorrow morning. Who knows this might turn into a thing.  
2. Wednesday - FINALLY going to get my hair cut!!! I'm able to cut Tom's hair okay, but Tom doesn't have the same kind of hair cutting skills. He has trimmed my bangs and I'm totally okay with that. Anything else is a NO. Anyway, my hair magician and I had an appointment set up for her to come her to our house. Since we made that appointment our county was okay'd to move to Phase 2. So off to the salon I go! 
3. Thursday - my special day!! I'm gonna turn double nickels! Whoa. I already have a coffee date with a good friend and then later in the day I believe we will have a small gathering, but I'm not in charge of that, so I'll find out on my birthday what is happening.
4. Friday - All things garden. I need to liberate my garlic in the crop garden from all of the Canada Thistle growing up around it. We can't hardly see the garlic right now! 

Well, I will be fitting in garden stuff here and there while we are home and not otherwise occupied. There is so much to do! I think I just need to chill out with the garden. It has been a very wet June. The garden is usually in by mid to late June anyway. If the rain keeps up like this I won't have anything out there but the silage tarp and weeds. Oh and the potatoes, sad tomatoes and romanesco. Patience...I must have patience.

This afternoon I do believe that I will take that nap. I'm a little tired from all the stuff that I think I might be up to this week.

I do like this farm life a lot. Looking forward to the day that this is my forever - who knows maybe sooner than later.

Farm Life Best Life.

Fiona and Rex went on a date - kids? what kids?

American Guinea Hogs

One of the things that I love about American Guinea Hogs is how calm they can be. They really don't put up a fuss or get too bent out of shape if something goes against what they want. Well, they might fuss a little, but that's to be expected. It was really fun to raise Rex and Fiona from newly weaned boar & gilt to now with two of the six of the piglets that Fiona farrowed on March 28th. 

Knowing that we would be selling most of the piglets in time I thought it best to handle them as much as possible. That way their new owners would have a easy time with the transition from our farm to theirs. The piglets were visited daily by both Tom and I as well as some of our friends who wanted to meet them. They were an instant hit with everyone who came to see them. I mean really, piglets are so stinkin' cute! No one can argue that! Also, Fiona was cool with us hanging around her babies and didn't get all crazy if one of them was picked up for any reason. Although there were a couple of times that they really squealed and she came to their rescue in no time flat! Note to self, be gentle with the babies. On more than one occasion while I was sitting and watching the babies she would just get up and wander off for a few minutes. Momma needs some alone time too...

At not quite two weeks old

Because we handled them so much and we were not a "threat" it was kind of easy to "train" them. Which really is just giving them a snack to get them to do what we want. At least that's what they zone in on, the snack. They're smart, but not geniuses. A little snack gets them every time!

Anyway, now that the four boys have moved on it was time to think about getting Rex back with Fiona. So yesterday, June 10th, we reunited Rex with Fiona with the kids as a bonus. This is not the first time that Rex has seen his babies, but this is his life now - no more absentee father! Since we sold the four boys last week (a week ago today) Rex has had the opportunity to hang out with Fiona and the kids a little more than when we had all six. After a while Fiona walked away as if to say "It's your turn, I'm going to go out for a while." Good Girl!

In order to get him moved we needed to spend some time getting the new paddock lined out and the fence installed which we did after dinner. It's a fairly good size area and they should have no problem poopin' it up good. Once we got them all into their new space they went right to work munching away on the grass and the volunteer squash. 

Top: Bridgette & Rex, Bottom: Fiona & Victor

Tom sent this to me. Rex "let" Fiona have pool time first

Anyway, this breed is an awesome breed! They tick all of the boxes for me too:

• Easy to handle - Check
• Gentle - Check
• Docile - Check
• Friendly - Check
• Excellent grazers - Check

Those are my top characteristic choices. We have said more than once that they complete our farm and what we hope to do which is be responsible about the food that we eat, share the experience with those around us and  be good stewards of what God has gifted us. 

Our pasture has been better than ever before. Although the chickens did do a lot of that work, but the pigs are contributing to that as well. They are good at eating up crops that we have too much of, which I plan to grow extra because they will eat squash and whatever else suits their palate. It's a good way to supplement their diet without spending a lot of money. The babies have been using their tiller/noses to root the grass and weeds that are in the driveway which is nice, but they don't do a thorough job. Their interest in a specific "job" is short-lived. I forgive them because they are cute and also, they are only 11 weeks old - their job is to grow up right now. Anything they do is instinct and they are practicing. 

If I had to do this all over again, I would have gotten pigs sooner. Actually if I could go back and do things again I would have started with chickens YEEEEEARS ago! Not so sure that pigs would have been a thought though. I always thought I would just do the chicken and duck thing like my mom. Only on a smaller more manageable scale. 

We have Mother Earth News Fair to thank for the pigs idea. Since the second time we attended the fair and we sat in on a couple of pig talks the wheels in my head started turning...

And now we are Pigs 'n Poultry Farm - or something new. Been thinking about new names lately. 

Farm Life Best Life!